Vegan Edinburgh
I have a guest post over on the Main Street Vegan blog this week, a sort of vegan love letter to Edinburgh. Hope you enjoy!
Food is Love
I'm not excited about blogging this week. It might be the holiday, or it might be because so many other projects are vying for my attention. So I'll just show you something I cooked up last week out of Denis Cotter's Café Paradiso Seasons, a stew with eggplant, fennel, tomatoes, potatoes, and thyme: 
This recipe is a bit labor intensive—you've got to cook the fennel, eggplant, and potatoes (each) separately before adding them to the pot—but the result is deliciously comforting. It reminds me of şakşuka, the eggplant-and-tomato dish we savored as often as possible during our time in Turkey. (The recipe also includes goat's-cheese gougeres, and I might attempt a vegan version at some point.)Last Friday I went to visit Eric at Brandeis, and brought a large Ball jar of the stew with me. The next day he emailed me the loveliest thank-you, and it got me thinking again about why I love to cook for people: it's the most fundamental way to show I care.At some point someone gave me the idea (at Sadhana Forest, probably!) that chanting (e.g., lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu—"may all beings everywhere be happy and free") as you cook infuses the food with your intention. I need to get back to that, even when I'm "only" cooking for myself. I don't want it to be the case that I eat really well only when company comes (and for a day or two afterward—leftovers are the best). A question I want to ask myself before every meal is, am I eating to nourish myself, or am I just eating to feel full?Food is love, people! Ideally, anyway—but as is the better part of this blog's raison d'être, living up to our ideals can be as pleasurable as we want to make it.(And with that, I'm off to cook up some breakfast.)
Chocolate Mousse, version 1
My friend Layla posted a chocolate mousse recipe from David Wolfe on my Facebook wall awhile back, and I've been making a version of it regularly (the original calls for honey):
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup almond or coconut milk
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 ripe avocados
2 tsp. vanilla
optional dash of cinnamon
Throw all ingredients in the Vitamix and process until smooth. Refrigerate for at least an hour before eating. (There will be a bit of mousse stuck to the sides of the blender, but I like to add maybe two cups of coconut milk and run the Vitamix one more time to make chocolate milk out of it. Waste not, heh heh!)
Quick and easy, and simultaneously as rich and lighter than mousse made with dairy.
Vitamin B12
A few months ago I went to my friend Carrie's house for dinner. Over hummus and chips (while a delicious cauliflower curry bubbled away on the stove), Carrie told me that she had been vegan for a long time. But somewhere around the six-year mark she got sick, and her doctor told her that the liver stores a six-year supply of vitamin B12. Apparently her supply had run out.
This story scared me into taking vitamin supplements more seriously. Up to that point I'd been taking a vegan multivitamin very sporadically (while grumbling about how vitamin manufacturers want everyone to think they need them when they truly can get all the nutrients they need from a diet of wholefoods). That sporadic multivitamin was better than nothing, I suppose, but I really wanted to feel confident that I was getting enough B12.
Here's some critical info on vitamin B12 from Vegan Society:
Very low B12 intakes can cause anemia and nervous system damage. The only reliable vegan sources of B12 are foods fortified with B12 (including some plant milks, some soy products and some breakfast cereals) and B12 supplements. Vitamin B12, whether in supplements, fortified foods, or animal products, comes from micro-organisms. Most vegans consume enough B12 to avoid anemia and nervous system damage, but many do not get enough to minimize potential risk of heart disease or pregnancy complications.
Before Big Ag leached all the nutrients out of the soil, we could have gotten the B12 we needed from those micro-organisms in the dirt on our vegetables. Now, even if you grow your own, you should take a supplement just to be on the safe side.
So I ordered a supplement pack from Vegan Cuts (looks like it's no longer available though), and the B12 spray was the coolest thing in the box. It's way more pleasant to take than a capsule. One berry-flavored spritz and you're all set! The manufacturer's link (Pure Vegan) is here, although you can find the spray for a few bucks less elsewhere online.
I've learned my lesson here: making informed and responsible health and dietary choices doesn't have to be tedious.
Kimchi!
Making more fermented foods is one of my culinary goals for the year, and I recently got around to making my first batch of kimchi. Kimchi is a Korean side dish or relish, sort of similar to sauerkraut, with a refreshingly spicy-sour flavor. Eat this yummy stuff and do your GI system (not to mention your sinuses, heh) a huge favor.
Zoe Keller of One Beet Wellness gave a demonstration at Herbstalk this past June, and her handout was really helpful. Zoe pointed out that, despite our fears about disease and contamination, most bacteria are beneficial! My sort-of-recipe below is based on hers.
Here's what I used:
one half a head of white cabbage
one head of fennel (including stalks)
three large carrots
one half a daikon radish
one large apple, peeled
stalks from four onions (you could just use an onion)
cloves from half a head of garlic, minced
two-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
4 tsp. of sea salt (no iodized salt! this is very important)
one skimpy squirt of sriracha (because I don't do super-spicy)
The method is simple: chop and mix everything up, sprinkle salt, and massage the veg until the salt has drawn the water out. Spoon the mixture into a glass jar or crock, pressing very firmly, pouring the water on top and weighting down the veg with a smaller glass jar. It's important that the veg not rise above the water line, or you might end up with mold on top.
I put a tea towel over the jar to keep the dust out, but the water kept bubbling up and soaking the towel, so I wound up overturning my iced-tea pitcher and placing that over the jar instead. (The pitcher is plastic, so it totally retained the yummy-bacterial odor. Oops. Hadn't thought of that! Soaked it in hot water and lemon juice and that did the trick.)
In this summer heat, the mixture got tangy within a few hours. You can leave it to ferment for weeks, but in this case, after four days my jar smelled quite fragrant enough! Once refrigerated, it'll keep for months.
Next time I'll use red cabbage to stain the whole thing purple. I also need to buy a mandolin to expedite the chopping.
It may be an acquired taste for some—hard to believe kimchi is not made with vinegar—but it really is so good for you!
Fuel for Camping
As I have mentioned in my travel posts over the past four years, my #1 vegan food tip is to pack tons of snacks. Actually, this isn't just a tip for vegans, as we discovered when traveling through Turkey during Ramadan. My sizable stash of Trader Joe's trail mix, sesame sticks, and dried fruit saved us at least one meltdown apiece.
You may also recall that one of my summer 2015 goals was to do more camping, so imagine my delight when Vegan Cuts advertised their deluxe camping box:
Thanks to this (mostly) snack box I've been introduced to several yummy new protein bar/cookie brands—Skout and Grab the Gold and Nii and NuGo Fiber d'Lish (I love Larabar, but new flavor combos are always nice)—as well as an organic, relatively-natural alternative to Red Bull called Dark Dog.
Ha, ha! Does it actually work? Well, I tried it one afternoon at Falcon Ridge while feeling fuzzy headed around 5pm—I was indeed tempted to take a nap, but at 5pm? come on—and it actually did work. Not a jarring jolt of energy, more of a ten-minutes-later oh-wow-I-feel-peppy-again sort of boost. Much, much better than Red Bull. Here's an explanation from the Dark Dog FAQ:
DARK DOG energy drinks contain the caffeine of guarana, which is much better for the stomach than the synthetic caffeine used in most other energy drinks. DARK DOG products do not contain chemical substances such as inositol or glucuronolactone that are found in other energy drinks.
It wasn't too sugary either (made with cane sugar), but I can't say I'm going to be picking up a case of it anytime soon only because I'm trying to wean myself off caffeine. (I've had several conversations lately about reducing my coffee intake, and the general advice seems to be to drink water and eat a little something, like a handful of nuts, if your energy is flagging.)
The breakfast cereal cup (with oats as well as amaranth, chia, flax, etc.) from Rokit Fuel packs ten grams of protein, twice as much as regular oatmeal, and it was really tasty too. The paper-and-plastic cup does seem wasteful though—I'd be more likely to buy it in the future if it came in little packets like regular instant oatmeal. I haven't tried the tea and coffee brew bags yet, and I am a bit skeptical, but I'll let you know in my next camping post if they're worth seeking out.
As for the toiletries, the Campn Stick (all-natural bug repellent) was wonderfully effective (I only got bitten when I neglected to use it, ha) and the Dr. Squatch soap came in handy (har har) too. I think it's marketed for men just because it has an herbal rather than a sweet or flowery scent. Actually, I rather like smelling like gold moss.
Being able to dig fun new goodies out of your bag when peckish enhances the already-awesome camping experience. Whatever you do and wherever you go, for the sake of your companions, make sure you have enough to nibble on!
(Not that I've ever been the crankypants of the group. Oh, no.) ;)
Chataigne shorts
Last summer I was trying on shorts off the Anthropologie sale rack, and when I checked the labels it seemed like every single pair was made in China. Then of course came the inevitable declaration of seamstresses the world over from time immemorial: I can make these!So here's a (typically belated) two-in-one sewing post: the Chataigne shorts from Deer and Doe, two versions from the same linen-rayon blend recommended by Ashley at Grey's Fabric in SoWa. (I LOVE Grey's. Love love love. Superlative customer service; gorgeous selection of fabrics, patterns, notions, and random gifty things; they sell Taza at the register!!; and now I have a punched-up rewards card giving me $10 off my next purchase.)
I made a pear-green pair last August; then, wanting something more practical, I went back to Grey's this spring and picked up some more of the linen-rayon blend in a medium gray.I don't have much in the way of notes or mods on this pattern, as the instructions are delightfully clear (unlike commercial sewing patterns, which is why indie designers like Deer and Doe, Colette, Victory, et al. are doing so well). The attention to detail is terrific without getting too fiddly apart from the V-shaped waistband, which is totally worth ripping and re-sewing a few times to get just right. (Also, a sewing PSA: diligent rounds of pressing are crucial to a successful finished garment!) I definitely want to make more Deer and Doe patterns (like this one and this one and maybe this one). 
I haven't done this yet, but my only suggestion (if you are using a linen or linen blend similar to this one) is to apply Fray-check along the seams to keep them from fraying too much over time. Also, I always hand wash these shorts. (I wash every garment I make by hand.)The green pair were a really good confidence-booster for me. I started my garment-a-month sewing challenge feeling way more competent than I had before! 
When my "I love animals too much to eat them" t-shirt arrived in the mail from Herbivore I squee'd at how perfectly the lettering matches my green shorts. One of my new favorite outfits for sure. (They're really wrinkly in that photo, but in fairness to the linen-rayon blend, I had been sitting on the bus for four hours!) 
I have another new dress to show you next!
Vegan Dessert Hall of Fame
Cranberry upside-down cake (recipe from Vegkitchen.com), served with oat milk. Photo by Todd (2023)
I've been meaning to collect my very favorite online dessert recipes for awhile now. I'll update this post periodically.
COOKIES
Ginger Yum-Yums and Chocolate Peanut Butter Buttons out of the Main Street Vegan Academy cookbook
Chickpea Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (GF)
CUPCAKES & MUFFINS
Lavender chocolate cupcakes (used maple syrup for the icing)
Chocolate stout cupcakes with whiskey buttercream
Peanut butter chocolate cupcakes
CAKES & PIES
Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread Cake
Classic Spice Cake from Fran Costigan’s Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts
PUDDINGY THINGS
SORBET & ICE CREAM
DESSERT COOKBOOKS
The Joy of Vegan Baking (lemon bars, chocolate macaroons, apple cake, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies)
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (gingerbread with lemon frosting and pumpkin chocolate chip!)
Many more exquisitely delicious sweet things to come!
Women of Every Species
Last week Book Riot included Bones & All on a feminist YA round-up. Awesome, right?...And also very disappointing.
Still delighted to be on @bookriot's list of feminist YA today, but I'm bummed there's no mention of the #vegan angle. Veganism IS feminism.
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) July 22, 2015
I also tweeted this:
The consumption of dairy products is an anti-feminist act. I know, I know. You don't want to see it because cheese tastes good. #vegan— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) July 22, 2015
I wound up getting into a bit of a Twitter argument with the author of the piece. The subtext of her tweets was, of course, HOW DARE YOU CALL ME ANTI-FEMINIST?
Here's why: because when you consume a dairy product, you are stealing another mother's milk. It belongs to her babies. You want to call yourself a feminist-for-humans-only? Yeah, you could do that. But it doesn't sit well, does it? Someday—maybe not someday soon, but someday—our society will recognize this theft, exploitation, and murder for what it is. How could I possibly "agree to disagree" on this?
I will write more soon about the underlying dynamic of this type of debate, because if we're not careful it can echo the original problem. We have to other-ize the animals in order to eat them, and I'm not helping if I'm other-izing the people doing the other-izing. I have to remember that we're all the same—ALL of us—not just the animals and those who truly sympathize with them.
I hope that makes sense, and if not, I shall elaborate anon. For now, just remember that I'm not judging you. I ate dairy products for the first thirty years of my life.
Writing + Yoga Retreat Schedule!
[Edit: This retreat has been rescheduled for May 20th-22nd, 2016. Details here.]
As promised, here's our plan for the retreat weekend. I don't want to tell you too much about the writing modules, since in some instances the unexpectedness makes the exercise more effective. I will say that the writing and yoga classes will be thematically linked, which is going to be really fun!
Friday
Snacks and introductions.
Setting our intentions for the weekend.
First writing exercise!
Dinner
Restorative Yoga practice & meditation.
Saturday
Morning Yoga practice
(Snack!)
Writing session, including a mind-mapping demonstration
Brunch
Writing session using symbols & archetypes
Free time (sauna, hike, etc.)
Dinner
Evening Kirtan & meditation.
Sunday
Morning Yoga practice
Brunch
Writing session on relationships & community
Final writing exercise and reflection
Thankfulness meditation in closing.
Drop me a line with any questions. Early-bird discount ($300 instead of $350) is good through April 15th!
How I Turned a Catcall Into a Teaching Moment
(That title isn't as accurate as it could be, but I bet it got your attention!)Recently I was in the market for a new futon, and the Boston Bed Factory got pretty good Yelp reviews. Unfortunately, there is a kill-'em-in-the-back butcher shop located right next door. 
On my way out of the futon store, I saw a man wheeling a dolly out the front door of the butcher's. There were no dead or doomed chickens in sight, but it was obvious the man was an employee. And dude was checking me out."Hey girl. How you doin'?"I very deliberately looked away and kept walking."Hey, why you gotta be like that?" he called after me.Still walking, I looked over my shoulder and pointed to the butcher's facade. "Because you work there," I replied. "I'm vegan."He didn't have an actual comeback for that—just something to the effect of "Aww, man!"—and maybe it's totally naive of me to think I planted a seed, but you never know, do you? I do know that I felt a whole lot better about that interaction than if I'd just ignored him and kept on walking.
On Being a "Joyful Vegan"
I get a lot of comments on my "Joyful Vegan" tank top and sweatshirt, which you can find on the lovely Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's website. My favorite reaction is "Are you really vegan?", to which my response is equal parts "LOL" and "?!??" (Which translates to "Um, why else would I be wearing this shirt?")I've also received feedback that is less curious and more, shall we say, mildly antagonistic. A girl who works at a yoga studio I used to frequent announced in front of a bunch of people in the lobby, "If I were vegan I wouldn't be joyful," which is downright unfortunate—not because her remark came off as hostile and so made me uncomfortable, but because she clearly wasn't as open minded as she might like to think she was.But I don't wear my "joyful vegan" duds to try to convince anyone to go vegan. Funny as it may sound at first, I wear them for myself.I wear them as a reminder that I am a diplomat of sorts, a living breathing example of the change I wish to see in the world. If I'm wearing this shirt, I don't leave myself room for pissiness if the soy milk curdles or the cafe doesn't offer any vegan baked goods. If I'm advertising my lifestyle in this way, I can't indulge those baser impulses (my impatience, my tendency toward crankiness) without coming off like a hypocrite. I have to step up and be who I want to be, the very best version of myself.And if, while wearing this shirt, I inspire anyone else to strive for the same, well—what a bonus! 
Retreat Update
Lovely people! Just wanted to let you know that Anne and I have rejigged our retreat plans to make it as affordable and convenient as possible. The retreat now runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon and the price is only $300 if you register by August 1st ($350 thereafter).
I'm sad we can't do a longer retreat, but a weekend session makes more sense logistically, and we can always do a longer one next year (maybe over Labor Day?) There will be a sweet little consolation though—we're putting together a workbook that will contain way more exercises and inspirational material than we could hope to cover in two days together, which means you can keep doing the deep and juicy work on your own afterward!
Interested? Get in touch!
Live What You Believe In
It's hard to believe I attended Main Street Vegan Academy two years ago already! You may recall that our class got to hear Ingrid Newkirk (founder of PETA) speak at NYU, and later on in that blog post I told you about one of my fellow NYU students back in the day, Lauren Gazzola. Lauren was part of the animal rights group on campus protesting the vivisection of macaque monkeys in NYU labs, and got in touch after I wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Square News in support of the protest.
Well, the internet makes the planet feel a whole lot smaller sometimes! Recently Lauren stumbled upon my 2013 blog post and got in touch on Twitter:
the moment u learn u affected someone yrs ago b4 u thought youd done anything worthwhile (& still wonder) http://t.co/MqevWxWWKS @cometparty
— Lauren Gazzola (@LaurenGazzola) June 23, 2015
That tweet gave me such a thrill. I'd thought of Lauren over the years and wished our paths had crossed again. (Read: I wish we'd become friends back then so her passion and dedication could have rubbed off on me. I know, I know, I have to be gentle with myself, but I will never shake the feeling that I went vegan a decade later than I should have. On the upside, that nagging feeling keeps me squarely on the path, and I do feel awesome about that.)
I asked Lauren if I could repost her letter to the editor (in response to the university spokesman's rebuttal of my original opinion piece, published October 16th, 2000)—to complete that circle, if you will—and she graciously agreed. It's a long piece, but well worth reading to the end if you are at all interested in animal rights and/or university (a.k.a. corporate diploma mill) politics:
Congratulations ought to be extended to Camille DeAngelis for finally invoking words from the hitherto mute perpetrators of vivisection at NYU through her outstanding piece, “Tuition money should not go to animal research.” (WSN, Oct. 11).
Unfortunately, however, John Beckman’s response is only that: words. It is neither credible nor convincing. Beckman makes unsubstantiated, blanket statements such as, “virtually every advance in medicine has been based on research that involves animals,” (WSN, Oct. 12). He offers no support for this expansive claim and fails to acknowledge that many significant gains in medicine were attained without the use of animals. As Dr. Richard Klausner, Director of the National Cancer Institute, stated in May 1998 in the Los Angeles Times, “The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.”
Students for Education on Animal Liberation at NYU (SEAL) has repeatedly challenged the University to a debate on the alleged merits and necessity of experiments being conducted at NYU. Such a debate would certainly allow for the “diversity of opinions and the thoughtful and intelligent exchange of ideas” that Beckman claims are “core value[s] in academia.”
However, it appears NYU holds these values on the bottom of its hierarchy. Beckman claims that animal advocates on campus “care little or not at all about the science involved; the actual value, scientific or academic, of the researcher’s work is never the point.” But that is exactly what we are interested in. For two years, members of SEAL have written to and held meetings with University officials asking for a discussion over the merits of specific animal research taking place at NYU. The University has continuously either rebuffed or avoided our questions. In 1998 they agreed to a forum on “animal research in general,” while expressly prohibiting the discussion of any current NYU animal research at this event.
If higher education is about reasoned debate, why is NYU so afraid of one?
The University has been equally unresponsive regarding any efforts to replace animal research with non-animal methods, such as epidemiological studies, computer modeling, artificial tissue, human skin cultures, autopsy, and non-invasive imaging (MRI, CAT, PET). Eight months ago, Dr. John McArdle, the director of Alternatives Research Development Foundation, an organization committed to replacing animal testing with non-animal based research methods, contacted T. James Matthews, chairman of NYU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. McArdle offered to search for a non-animal alternative to Lynne Kiorpes’s strabismus (crossed eyes) experiments on juvenile monkeys. NYU did not acknowledge McArdle’s letter; the University did not even communicate that it was not interested in his offer.
Even more distressing is Beckman’s claim that “great care is taken throughout the research to prevent suffering...an obligation to reduce suffering is a part of the law that governs the use of animals in research, with which [NYU] strictly compl[ies].” How, we must ask, did such strict compliance result in NYU’s nearly 400 violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), for which the University was assessed a fine of $450,000—the second largest fine ever by the USDA for violating the AWA? (It is important to note that the Animal Welfare Act merely regulates such simple things as adequate food, water, space, exercise and veterinary care, and places no restrictions whatsoever on what can be done to animals in actual experiments.)
SEAL has chosen to highlight Lynne Kiorpes’s strabismus experiments because they are a prime example of the unnecessary, wasteful and cruel experiments being conducted on 50,000 animals in hidden laboratories every year at NYU. Beckman’s claim that we are waging a campaign of “harassment and intimidation” is simply NYU’s attempt to take the attention off the dead and suffering animals by becoming the victim. Who are the real victims here: the monkeys in Kiorpes’s lab who are having holes drilled into their heads, microelectrodes inserted into their brains and are then subjected to hours of brain wave recording sessions, or the person who is having a flyer circulated on campus about her experiments?
With increasing numbers of scientists and doctors speaking out against animal experimentation, the availability of non-animal research methods, AWA fines and outraged students and faculty, one wonders why NYU would continue to carry on with these activities. Ms. DeAngelis hit the nail on the head when she claimed NYU profits from animal experimentation. Beckman is correct when he says that animal experimentation costs a lot. But luckily (for NYU) it brings in more. All universities receive sizeable monetary allotments from faculty grants. According to E.H. Ahrens, author of The Crisis in Clinical Research: Overcoming Obstacles, “direct costs support the research of the PI [primary investigator], while indirect costs are paid to meet the overhead costs of the institution in which the PI works.” In his book, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese, Ray Greek, M.D., says, “In some cases the institution receives more money from the grant than the researcher.” NYU receives millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money in grants from the National Institutes of Health—a cycle of vivisectors rubberstamping vivisectors.
SEAL calls upon NYU to begin to address this abuse of research money and animal lives by implementing a program that would reallocate five percent of its annual funding for animal research toward non-animal based research methods. This modest plan would gradually eliminate the use of live animals while freeing up resources for innovative, new technologies. Otherwise, NYU will no doubt remain in the past and continue to hide behind wordy statements.
The animals need more than banter in the school newspaper. They need the electrodes removed from their brains. They need to live outside of cages. Save the PR, we want changes.
—Lauren Gazzola Gallatin Senior and SEAL representative
If you read Lauren's bio on the Center for Constitutional Rights website, you'll see she's been campaigning tirelessly for the rights of non-human people throughout the nearly fifteen years (!) since this letter to the editor was published. We may live in a world in which powerful corporate interests can send peaceful activists to jail, and in which institutions of "higher learning" go on quietly torturing animals by the thousands. But what are you going to do—give up?No way. The animals are depending on us! So thank you, Lauren, for being such an amazing human. We need many more people like you in the world.
Things radicals (self included) should be more radical about: humility; empathy; listening. Wuddya'll say we work on those? — Lauren Gazzola (@LaurenGazzola) July 2, 2015
My New Favorite Restaurant
I've been hearing about Vedge, a gourmet vegan restaurant on Locust Street in Philadelphia, for several years now. Everyone raves about it, but I didn't get my act together and make a reservation until recently. When I was home last month, I took the high speed line into the city with my friends Shveta, Helen, and Beth, and we savored a meal that totally lived up to the hype.
This is definitely a special occasion kind of place—I spent $70 altogether—but with mashed potatoes with a gorgeously cloud-like consistency, seitan that tasted exactly like grilled chicken (which I haven't eaten in more than half my lifetime, but still—so much like "the real thing" it was disconcerting!), melt-in-your-mouth mushrooms, and saffron cheesecake with rhubarb ice cream that set every tastebud alight, oh yes, the deliciousness and the specialness of it was worth every cent.
As I told a new friend over lunch at Veggie Galaxy yesterday, there's a place for every kind of veg restaurant, be it a food truck, a diner with comfort-food classics, a hippie-crunchy place like Life Alive, or a fancypants eatery like Vedge. Whatever the style, menu, or price range, I just want to see more of them!
Comet Party Writing + Yoga Retreat, take 2!
[Edit: This retreat has been rescheduled for May 20th-22nd, 2016. Updated details here.]
Remember how I'm offering my first retreat this September at lovely Bethel Farm? Alas (for me, anyway, haha), Stephen's son is getting married that week, so I needed to find a new partner. I have two very dear Jivamukti yoga teachers at Karma here in Boston—Fiona McQuade and Anne Wichmann—and Anne is going to co-teach the retreat. We are so excited we can't even tell you! Friday Thursday, September 10th 11th through Sunday, September 13th!
Here is the new flyer, which we'll be posting alllllll over Boston very soon:
Cost is $350 $415, inclusive of all but travel ($300 early bird!) Visit the Bethel Farm website to get a feel for the atmosphere! Please note that accommodation is dorm style. If you're without wheels, we'll most likely be able to hook you up with a ride share, so no worries on that account.
I should also clarify that while the yoga classes will be suitable for beginners, I'd say adventurous beginners will be most comfortable. I define "adventurous beginner" as someone who is determined to feel good about what their body can do for them in the present moment. (So you see, absolutely anyone qualifies with a bit of positive mental prep!)
I'll post the retreat schedule in a couple weeks to give you a sense of the rhythm of our days, how the intuitive writing modules will work, and how Anne's yoga classes will complement and deepen the work we're doing in our notebooks and mind maps.
Please feel free to leave a comment below or email me with any questions or to register. Space is limited to 12, so definitely get in touch soon!
Wild Cherry Tartlets
My mom has wild cherry trees in her backyard, and my niece and nephew enjoy picking berries this time of year. When I was home a couple weekends ago Olivia slept over and we baked muffin-sized pies on Sunday morning.
The flavor is pretty good for wild fruit—tart but not too tart.
There isn't a recipe as such: we used about 1/3 of a classic Julia Child pie crust using Earth Balance butter and shortening (bearing in mind that recipe yields two double crusts), which I'd tucked in the freezer the last time I baked an apple pie; four heaping cups of pitted cherries, and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Baked at 350º for about 45 minutes. Yields a dozen.
Even sweeter than dessert, of course, was getting to spend QT with my not-so-little-anymore niece. She is so can-do and independent!
Riding bumper cars at the carnival with my niece: "I don't want to run into anyone, I just want to DRIVE!" She's 8 and ready for her permit!
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 14, 2015
36 Hours in the Emerald City, part 2
36 Hours in the Emerald City, part 1: http://t.co/pEbjrm9XS4#vegan#YAlit#seattlepic.twitter.com/3F61qZo9RF
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 17, 2015
Magical glass at @chihulygg. #seattle (cc @cyndyaleo) pic.twitter.com/rxmZOgLU9G
— Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 10, 2015
After landing in Seattle I grabbed a falafel sandwich and headed to the Chihuly Exhibition, which Cyndy Aleo recommended. It's quite pricey at $25, but it's such a unique and wonderful place that I still have to talk it up.
After the Chihuly I decided to hop on an uptown bus to my AirBnB, shower and rest for a bit before heading out to dinner at the Wayward Vegan Café (see previous post).
The neighborhood is so charming, it was a treat just walking around taking photos of the flowers in people's front yards.
The next morning I took a leisurely walk around Green Lake. The circuit is 2.8 miles long.
Totally living this definition of gratitude on my flash vacation. #seattlepic.twitter.com/j2DX7Om5xt — Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 10, 2015
Randomly beautiful. #seattlepic.twitter.com/PmSVIpquZK — Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) June 17, 2015
On Love, Tempeh, and Irresolvable Paradoxes
You may recall that Caryn Hartglass had me on her radio show to talk about Bones & All and veganism a couple weeks back. If you listened to the segment, you heard me say—quite emphatically—that I believe eating animals is immoral.
As I spoke those words, I felt a little cosmic tug on my sleeve: You have to explain this. How can I assert that eating animals is immoral without implying that all the omnivores I know are immoral too?
I do think eating animals is wrong, yet I dearly love many people who do. My parents. My grandparents. Almost all of my family. My friends: Seanan. Kelly B. Alex. Ailbhe and Christian. Shelley and James. Liv. Mackenzi. Elliot—one of my very favorite people in the world—celebrated his thirtieth birthday last weekend with a backyard pig roast. Dude ain't going vegetarian anytime soon, but he'll always be the brother I never had.
Am I silently judging my loved ones? Do I love them in spite of their diet? Do I tell them I love them while in my secret heart believing that I am a better person than they are? More evolved than they are?
Nope.
We just have to chalk this up to an irresolvable paradox. I claim the right to be able to say these two things to the same person:
You are one of the VERY best people I know.
AND
I hope that someday you will extend your love and compassion to all sentient creatures, not just our fellow humans.
I know it's hard not to feel like I'm judging you when we talk about veganism. I know it can feel awkward when the conversation wanders toward my diet, philosophy, and worldview, and how it contrasts with yours. But please know that I don't love you in spite of our differences; I just love you.
That's the point of veganism, after all: unconditional love.
The Good Karma Diet: Green Smoothie Recipe + Book Giveaway!
My dear teacher Victoria Moran's new book, The Good Karma Diet, is now on sale! You'll find my transformation story on pages 166-167. I'm delighted to host Victoria on the blog today with an excerpt from the book along with a green smoothie recipe (I'm really psyched about this; I have to confess that throwing kale and a few odds and ends in the Vitamix usually results in a smoothie that's a bit too healthy tasting, if you know what I mean. I actually need a recipe.)
And of course, you can enter win a copy of the book below!
From The Good Karma Diet by Victoria Moran
Good Karma eating is as simple as can be: comprise your meals of plants instead of animals, and most of the time choose unprocessed plant foods, meaning that they got from the garden or orchard or field to your kitchen with minimal corporate interference. This way of eating gives you good karma in two ways. The first is self-explanatory: by eating foods of high nutrient density and avoiding the animal products and processed foods your body can have trouble dealing with, you’ll reap the rewards of improved health. The second is a bit more mystical: you do good and you get good back.
As is true for life in general, it’s probably better to do this with unselfish motives, but even if your motivation is to become thinner, healthier, or more youthful, you’ll be doing something modestly heroic at the same time. This way of eating and living could lessen the suffering of billions of animals. I know it’s hard to think in terms of billions, but if you imagine counting the individual beings one at a time, you get some of the impact. In addition, ninety-eight percent of the animals raised for food suffer horrifically on factory farms before being slaughtered, often in adolescence. Every time you eat a vegan meal, you’re voting for something different.
This choice also lightens the burden on the planet. Raising animals for food in the numbers we do today calls for an exorbitant amount of water and fossil fuels. It leads to vast “lagoons” of animal waste, and the release into the atmosphere of tons of greenhouse gases, mostly in the form of methane.
What you have here is holistic dining at its finest – body and soul. Eating whole, plant foods is scientifically validated as being both nutritionally adequate and anti-pathological. In other words, it cures stuff. Not everything. But reversal of such scourges as coronary disease and type 2 diabetes among people on this kind of diet has been repeatedly reported in the scientific literature; and the preventive potential of this way of eating is supported by ample research.
If this sounds great but going all the way seems impossible right now, go partway. Americans’ consumption of animal foods has, as I write this, been decreasing annually since 2007, primarily because non-vegans are making vegan choices some – or much – of the time. They fix a veggie-burger or black beans and rice, or they order their latté with soy, or have a green smoothie for breakfast so they’ll look prettier and -- what do you know? -- the statistics get prettier, too.
Once you’re fully vegan, celebrate! The only thing you need to “do” nutritionally that you weren’t doing before is take a vitamin B12 supplement of about 100 micrograms a day as a tiny, tasty, melt-in-your mouth tablet. B12 is not reliably found in plant foods unless they’ve been fortified with it, and lack of B12 is dangerous. This single missing element in a plant-food diet pains many vegans. If this is the perfect diet, it ought to be, well, perfect. But this is life on earth: extraordinary, magnificent, and absolutely not perfect. Bacteria in our mouths and intestines do make some B12, and maybe at some point in evolutionary history we all made enough, just as our long-ago ancestors made their own vitamin C and now we don’t. I look at taking B12 as a tiny surcharge for the privilege of being vegan.
If you hear yourself saying “I could never give up ice cream” (or something else), realize that you may just be short on vegucation. There are lots of rich, luscious nondairy ice creams on the market, and you can make exquisite homemade ice cream with only a DIY gene and an ice cream maker.If you have the information and you’re still saying “I could never give up. . .,” listen to yourself. You’re affirming weakness. You’re bigger than that. You can eat plants and save lives. You can give your life exponentially more meaning by living in a way that decreases suffering just because you got up and chose a kind breakfast.
Without this commitment, the Good Karma Diet would be, as much as I hate to say it, just a diet. To me, a diet is: “Eat this and don’t eat that, and feel guilty when you screw up, which of course you will because you’re only human, for heaven’s sake, and nobody can be on a diet forever.” That doesn’t really make you want to say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Understand and embrace the compassion piece, the conviction that you’re here to make life easier for others, regardless of species, and then everything else – whatever tweaks you might make because of an allergy, a digestive peculiarity, a personal preference -- will come with little effort. This lifts that word “diet” from the deprivational depths and restores its original meaning from the Greek diaita, “a way of life.” And this particular way of life is one replete with meaning and fulfillment and joy.
Excerpted from THE GOOD KARMA DIET: Eat Gently, Feel Amazing, Age in Slow Motion by Victoria Moran, with the permission of Tarcher/Penguin, a division of Penguin Random House. Copyright © 2015.
* * *
Green Power Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients:
1 large celery stalk, chopped
1 frozen banana, or 1/2 cup other frozen fruit (peaches, pineapple, berries, etc.)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 to 1 1/2 cups water
About 1 cup kale, spinach, or romaine lettuce, tightly packed
Optional:
For a greener smoothie: 1 to 2 teaspoons spirulena or barley grass powder, and/or a handful of fresh cilantro or parsley
For a sweeter smoothie: 1 teaspoon maple syrup or 3-4 drops stevia
For a heftier smoothie: 1/2 small avocado, and/or 1 scoop vegan protein powder
For a spicy smoothie: 1/2-inch knob of fresh ginger, or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
For a super-duper smoothie: 1 to 2 teaspoons maca powder and/or ground flaxseeds
Loving Preparation:
1. In a blender, blend celery, banana (or other fruit), lemon juice, greens, water, and any optional ingredients, until liquefied.
2. Add greens of your choice and blend until completely liquified.
Taste and adjust if necessary. (Go easy on the greens at first. The time will come when you’ll fill the blender with them.)
3. Serve immediately.
Makes 1 to 2 servings.
Excerpted from THE GOOD KARMA DIET: Eat Gently, Feel Amazing, Age in Slow Motion by Victoria Moran, with the permission of Tarcher/Penguin, a division of Penguin Random House. Copyright © 2015. Photo and recipe by Doris Fin, CCHP, AADP.
Giveaway!
The usual guidelines:
You get ONE entry for a Facebook comment
TWO entries for a share, tweet or retweet
and THREE entries for leaving a comment on this blog post telling me your favorite smoothie combo!
Contest ends Friday, June 5th at 5pm ET. Randomly-chosen winner also receives a round of Taza chocolate. Smoothies are kind of hard to send through the mail, after all. ;)